Paw Prints
by Flamewind
Summary: An Espeon sees that many bad things are going to happen in the future. But who's causing all of them? Why is he having these visions so suddenly? /Oneshot/


Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. :( Too bad…

A/N: This is a story for Delmara's Espeon Chiller contest, which was to write a horror story with Espeon in it. If you would like to go to Delmara, the link to it is my homepage.

**Paw Prints **

_A single car was making its way towards the cross between Nervosa Drive and Kay Street. Simple enough person driving it, a balding man in his late forties, one who hadn't shaved for a couple of days. The streetlamps were just beginning to light up, providing a single illuminated path to follow which bathed the asphalt in an eerie orange glow. It was time that the kids were being called back into their houses for dinner and their bath, and one stray child was still crossing the road when the car was near. _

_The single screech of a car swerving to avoid lifted into the air… _

Oliver jerked out of his trance with a start. His light purple eyes shifted around the room, taking in the colors and the silence. It was the living room he was resting in, a room of light beige with two resting alabaster lamps situated in each corner. In here, Oliver always got the best visions of the future, and most of them were peaceful. No, just being in the room brought him peace. His sister never came in here, and nor did any of the other Pokemon of the household.

It always took a few minutes after he saw into the future to remind himself that he wasn't in that future yet, rather it would happen, or could be changed. But… he had known the man that was driving that car.

The alabaster lamps flicked to life on their own. Oliver started at the sudden rush of light.

Getting to his paws, Oliver blinked a couple of times and arched his back in a big stretch. His trainer wouldn't miss him for the few minutes it would take for him to teleport there and see if the vision had come through.

* * *

A single car made the turn slowly onto Nervosa Drive. Neal Hart checked his speedometer as he passed by a sign that said for all drivers to slow down, that Nervosa was the beginning of a housing area. Thirty miles an hour, it read. 

Oliver stood on the sidewalk paralleling the place where he'd seen the crash. His head-jewel glimmered as he began to store power in it, ready to make the vision not be true. The little red car was within seeing-distance now, and Oliver tensed when he saw the same young boy begin to cross the street. He pushed the psychic energy out of the jewel then, fully wanting to just scoop the boy up and place him safely on the other side.

But…

A vision struck him again in that split second.

_Delia looked up from the grooming of her coal-black fur. The rings on her coat glowed, and Oliver couldn't help but shudder at how sinister they looked, "You look like you just saw a Dusclops. Care to talk about it?" She asked with an innocent purr. Her rings stopped glowing, and her brother suddenly felt foolish that the thought had ever crossed his mind._

A disgusting smell filled Oliver's senses after the vision was finished. It smelled of burning fuel and what remained of a car that had smashed and wrapped around a tree. There was no way anyone could have survived a crash like that, but Oliver checked anyway, just to see that Neal Hart was indeed dead.

_

* * *

"Are you sure?"_ Delia asked, blinking in confusion. 

_"Yes. I had a vision of it, and…"_

A small black paw gently rested on Oliver's shoulder, and he looked up to see his sister was looking about as affected about his as he felt. Neal Hart was the breeder that had first sold Oliver and Delia to their trainer, and they both had felt some sort of attachment to him.

Oliver and Delia were twin eons; each had the same sort of thought patterns, which made it easy for one to know what the other was planning. They were similar in size and stature, though that made them opposite from what their species was supposed to be. As an Espeon, Oliver was bigger than normal, while Delia was rather small for an Umbreon.

It was then that the dinner bell rang from a far room. Delia's eyes glinted as she raced over to the kitchen, leaving her brother in silence. He wasn't looking forward to having anything more to do with the day, especially since his trainer was away. She'd hired one of her best friends to take care of him and his sister… the one who always stuffed bitter-tasting drinks down their throats if they so much as thought about coughing.

But he went downstairs and slinked into the kitchen anyway, blinded for a moment by the brightness of the overhead lights. Waiting for him was what appeared to be a bowl of rounded pebbles, fresh from a streambed. The smell was unappetizing, and that's what he told the white-faced teenager who loomed over the bowls as if she wanted some of this food herself.

"You'll eat it anyway." The girl replied. Oliver growled in annoyance, and took a bite of the food.

As he swallowed, a strange feeling crept into his belly, and Oliver became very dizzy. Everything went black.

* * *

Snap! _Something hard broke between Oliver's jaws. A metallic taste filled his mouth. _

Oliver tossed his head, but couldn't shake away from the dark, sleep-like trance that had formed over his head.

_Voices. His trainer and Delia, talking about him. Oliver was not there._

"No, no, I didn't do it."_ The feline in question backed away, shaking his head. _"It wasn't me…"

…Me…me…me…

Oliver couldn't get that word out of his head.

It wasn't me.

It wasn't me? It was me. No, no, it wasn't.

* * *

Voices. His trainer and Delia, talking about him. Oliver wasn't awake enough to hear exactly what they were saying, except he could hear the first syllable of his name, over and over. 

"Oliver?" It was his trainer. Her voice was in his ear, and it sounded like she'd been crying. "You'll be… …ate…"

Oliver strained his ears, but her voice just wouldn't come out correctly. He let off a faint mew, hoping that would get her to say something else. But it only sapped his limited strength, and he fainted once again.

_

* * *

A scream in the night._

Oliver opened his eyes at last, to see his trainer looking down at him, but Delia was not there. _"What happened?" _He asked, which came out through a voice harsh from the lack of moisture in it.

"What you ate gave you an allergic reaction when Christina was here looking after you and Delia." The trainer replied, "But don't worry, you're okay now."

Delia returned to Oliver's field of vision, her eyes two glinting rubies. _"Yes," _she echoed, _"You're okay… for now." _

* * *

It was a month later when Oliver and Delia were sent over to Christina's house to stay when their trainer had to stay overnight at a school function, and she wanted them to make friends with Christina, so there they were. The shag carpet that was all over the new house smelled of cinnamon and crunched uncomfortably under the eons' paws. 

Oliver had been separated from his sister when they first got there, as Christina wanted to make up for the incident the last time she'd taken care of him. He had to put up with her crooning and petting for the longest time, before being dragged off to sleep in her spare bedroom when her parents called for lights out.

He was drifting off to sleep when an eerie sound lit in the air. It chilled him with the feeling of déjà vu it brought.

A girl's scream lifted in the night.

It was Christina's.

Looking around, Oliver saw nothing of Delia, and couldn't pick up her scent trail. He shook his head and left the room he was in, padding silently into Christina's room, where he was greeted by the sight of her sitting up in bed, mouth open in that same scream that he had heard. If only he had known it was her last.

His sharp feline eyes picked up the trail of red paw prints leading up to the bed, and then back away from it. But an overhead light being flicked on blinded them. A human stood in the doorway, and Oliver knew who it was—Christina's father. His mouth was open in shock. And then, he looked down, and saw Oliver.

_

* * *

"I didn't do it." _Oliver said, shaking his head, _"It wasn't me." _

"Oliver…" his trainer whispered. He felt a cold pang in his side… she didn't believe him. "The paw prints were yours. They match yours perfectly. I'm sorry Ollie… but you know what this means."

_"N-no." _He stammered, _"No, no, no! I didn't do it! Why don't you believe me?" _

She smiled, but it was a cold one, "There's no proof that it wasn't you. Face it—you wanted revenge against Christina for causing you to have an allergic reaction. Maybe you didn't want to kill her, but you did. The proof is in the paw print."

_"But…"_

"Go say goodbye to your sister."

Oliver, his tail trailing, left her company, his eyes fixed on the ground. _It wasn't me_. He must've been the only one who knew that. He nearly ran right into Delia in the hallway, where she was sitting, and she looked up from the grooming of her black fur. The rings on her coat glowed, and Oliver couldn't suppress a shudder, _"You look like you just saw a Dusclops. Care to talk about it?"_ She asked.

Her rings stopped glowing, and he began, _"Goodbye Delia."_ Oliver said, almost mechanically. There was a part of him that still believed that this was all some sick joke… some vision gone wrong.

_"She's awful, isn't she?" _Delia said instead of a responding goodbye. _"I'm going to kill her." _

She received the blankest stare that Oliver had ever given. It was slowly replaced by surprise, and then he could only think: _This has to be a dream… _

But Delia was serious. _"Then we'll both be free of her." _She insisted, _"Free of her, and already free of Christina. And then were could we go? Definitely not back to breeder Hart. We'd be… free." _

Her voice was rising in pitch, and Oliver could just barely hear their trainer stirring in the background. _"Delia." _He murmured, _"Raise your paw." _

She did as he wanted, and Oliver pressed his paw to hers. Their paws were the same size. Delia had a sinister gleam in her red eyes. _"So you figured it out. Aww… you didn't know, did you? I've been forcing your visions." _

The trainer was creeping closer. _"What did you do to Christina?" _

_"I killed her. That's all you need to know." _

"That sure is." Their trainer took the rest of the steps into the hallway in the normal, loud human fashion. Oliver was bowled over by a blast of dark energy, which had come straight from Delia.

_"Stay out of this." _She hissed at him. Delia stalked forward, her rings and eyes both glowing as brightly as they'd even done before.

Oliver moved without much thought, and had never wanted to really hurt his sister. But he bit down on her tail anyway, and felt something snap beneath it, and a metallic taste flooded his mouth. Her blood. Delia yowled in pain and fury, and twisted around. This time the attack she aimed at him was not for warning, it knocked him back and made a sick feeling in his stomach.

Delia was then on top of him, _"I'll kill you too." _She hissed, showing her yellowed fangs, _"Just for standing in my way." _Oliver gathered his feet under her belly and pushed hard, propelling her into the adjacent wall. Gathering power in his jewel, he attacked her with psychic energy, just to have it bounce off of her dark fur, only knocking it slightly astray.

She jumped at him, and he rolled away, letting her crash in the space where he was. Snorting furiously, she jumped at him again, forgetting that their trainer was there, behind him. Delia was caught under her trainer's foot the next second, with the human staring down at her. "You brought this onto yourself." She said. The last thing Delia ever did was let out one last hiss of fury before her own trainer crushed her lungs. Talk about bad karma...


End file.
